BBC Storyville – A Woman Captured (2018)

A Woman Captured is a raw and intimate portrayal of the psychology behind enslavement. Director Bernadett Tuza-Ritter offers an evocative study of a woman so debased and disregarded that even she has lost sight of her own life.

A 52-year-old Hungarian woman has been kept by a family as a domestic slave for a decade. Marish has been exploited and abused by a woman for whom she toils as a housekeeper – entirely unpaid, performing all manner of back-breaking household duties seven days a week. In exchange, she only gets cigarettes, leftovers and a couch to sleep on. The money she earns from night shifts in a factory is taken away from her. Deprived of her ID and deep in forced debt, she is forbidden to even leave the house without permission.

Marish’s 16-year-old daughter ran away a couple of years ago, unable to bear her circumstances any longer. Marish lives with too much fear in her heart to leave but dreams of being reunited with her daughter.

Drawing courage from the film-maker’s presence, Marish eventually reveals her plan: she will leave the unbearable oppression behind and attempt to escape. The film follows Marish’s heroic journey back to freedom.